After the class on ships doctrine and equipment Tali looks longingly at the corridor that would take her to Engineering, instead she reluctantly follows Jane onto the lift. As they're slowly ascending between the two floors she asks, "Captain, why is this lift so slow?"
Jane smiles and pulls open a hatch, "I had this very conversation myself. They're using screws to provide structural support and motive power just in case there's a power failure. Apparently hydraulics have their own issues. How do your people deal with this sort of thing?"
Tali carefully looks inside the hatch to see the inner workings of the lift, "We use mass effect fields and magnetic propulsion."
Jane nods, "I can see that working on a ship that's unlikely to ever be exposed to magic. However this ship was designed in conjunction with the Systems Alliance so there's always the possibility that the mass effect fields would fail. If this was a purely magical ship they'd just be a couple of hatches that were expanded as needed so that unshrinkable items could be levitated through them. They also have a lot of stairs."
Tali pulls her head away from the hatch and looks at Jane, "Why stairs and not ladders?"
Jane shakes her head, "Why don't you treat that as a research question. Anyway, we've arrived and you've got an inventory to write up and requisition forms to prepare, and I've got drills to oversee on deck."
Tali straightens up and gives a Quarian salute, "Yes Captain!"
#
As an alert flashes up on her HUD to inform her of the midday break, Tali leans back in the chair and blinks her eyes several times to try and relieve the pressure that's built up from trying to understand the requisition forms. To one side is her magitech dataslate, that she's been using to try and look up the human definitions for the various words on the form with varying levels of success. Her own omnitool is running a comprehensive translation program with the last 10 words still visible. The topmost word being 'set', and the second being 'lead'.
Shaking her head she pushes herself to her feet and walks over to her cabinet. As her hand grasps the door handle she says, "Ugh, what are you thinking Tali. Am I really considering taking my faceplate off just to be able to fill out these forms easier?"
A glance down at the pages of words that the human word 'set' could possibly mean confirms that, yes she really is going to face this just so it all makes sense. Taking a deep breath, Tali opens the door to her cabinet and walks into the decontamination chamber just inside.
Once the chamber is finished cycling, and the inner door unlocks she takes a moment to perform the most sensitive atmospheric scan her omnitool will do. When the results come back she marvels at the fact it comes back with less than one part per million for any detectable particles above 10nm in size. Hesitantly, she takes touches the command that releases her face plate, and then reaches up to take it off for only the 2nd time in her adult life.
After she's leant against the wall for several minutes to get her breathing and heart rate back under control, Tali runs the atmospheric scan a second time and anxiously waits for the scan to finish. As soon as the new results come up, she feeds them into a realtime monitoring program and sets it to alert her if the particle count rises above those levels, or new particles are detected. As soon as the program starts running an alert starts flashing in the HUD of her faceplate.
Nervously she lifts the faceplate closer, only to sigh in relief as it's just a high power usage warning. Tapping a couple of icons brings up a projected battery life monitor that shows she's got around an hour before the tool reverts to a low power mode.
Over the next few minutes Tali carefully opens each door between her and the entertainment centre, before sticking her arm through the door for several seconds to check the air on the other side.
When she finally sits down with the leather cap in her hands she reaches into a pouch and pulls out an injector that contains a relaxant. "I think that this counts as a necessary use for one of these. Keeliah that was nerve wracking."
As the drug takes effect and forces her body to relax, Tali starts looking through the different caps until she finds one in a drawer that was locked with a key. A key that was still in the keyhole. A quick command seals the wrist of her suit so that she can safely remove her glove.
As she's taking her blooded finger off of the brass plate, her eyes widen as her brain catches up with the fact she's not wearing her face plate. Only the presence of the drug in her system stops her from collapsing from hyperventilating. With clenched teeth she raises her ungloved hand and uses it to push the hair cap over the top of her head so that she can get the leather memory cap on.
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A few minutes later, Tali pushes herself into a seating position with a groan. "Ugh, what happened? Where's the cap?"
As she's looking around, she spots a glowing spot above her forehead and reaches up to find the cap on her head with the crystal already mounted. As she pulls it off, her eyes catch a glimpse of writing on the metal plate just before it's covered by a leather panel.
Curiously she uncovers the plate and stares at the warning, 'Warning, ensure you are lying down before use. Caution, causes short term memory loss, see manual for details.'
Using the desk to help her back to her feet, Tali freezes as she spots a small booklet with the picture of some skyline and a group of humans looking at a map. Below the cloud line, in blue writing, are the words, 'Memcorder extreme, skillz edition.'
Opening the booklet shows an image of a human wearing this cap on the inside cover, and on the first page is a list of contents, including 'how to use the Skillz mode'.
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Jane looks up from her paperwork, with a carrot stick poking out of her input port, as the door to Tali's cabinet opens. Swallowing her mouthful of carrot, she smiles, "How'd you get on?"
Tali throws a booklet across the room angrily, only for it to flutter uselessly to the floor as it opens in mid flight, "You're a bitch, why didn't you tell me I needed to be lying down?"
Jane takes off her faceplate so that Tali can see her face without anything in the way. "Honestly, I had no idea. I've never used one of those devices to learn skills, only to transfer memories into crystals for reports. Are you ok?"
Tali slumps down on the bed, "No, not really. I was so scared in there that I had to take a relaxant, and then I found out that the poxie helmet blocks short term memory retention while it's working, which means I don't remember putting it on, or putting the crystal in. I just woke up on the floor after it finished."
As Tali's talking, Jane stands up and walks over to sit beside her. Then she wraps her arm around Tali to provide comfort. "I'm sorry, I didn't know. When we have some downtime I'll show you how to submit complaints and revisions for standard military equipment, and you can submit a Quarian translation of…"
"Khelish."
"Sorry?"
Tali looks up to face Jane, "The name of our language, it's Khelish not Quarian."
At the far end of the room the door swishes open and a female crew member quickly hurries in and puts a dataslate down, "Sorry to intrude, you… ah… didn't have your privacy indicator… These are the results of the stealth system test Captain."
Jane blinks as the woman leaves as quickly as she arrived. "Right, you were saying that your language is Khelish?"
Tali shuffles away, "Jane, why was she so nervous?"
"I would imagine she thought we were kissing. I'm supposed to be on lunch for the next five minutes, so I assume she was just being a little too eager."
Tali frowns, "Is that like the Asari tendency to put their mouths together?"
Jane frowns, "It is. I thought you understood English now."
Tali nods, "I do, but we don't put our mouths together, it is too dangerous. We instead press our foreheads together. Even those who are married won't do that. They share air and skin, and even that brings a high risk with it."
Jane shakes her head, "It's been bugging me for a while, why do you wear suits even on your ships?"
Tali looks down at her omnitool, "Our histories say that we originally wore them just in case of a hull breach, as they have a few hours worth of oxygen. However, after the initial danger passed, we found that our children couldn't survive being suitless. Our dream of returning to our homeworld isn't just about reclaiming our home, it's also about our survival."
Jane nods, "Well, once we have time to visit an alliance planet for shore leave, you'll have plenty of time to go suitless after I've taken you to get your own magic, as your magic will protect you from any diseases."
Tali looks up hopefully, "Would you be able to do the same for the rest of the fleet?"
Jane shakes her head, "Tali, you're my apprentice. There will be some magical oaths involved, about protecting life in the Galaxy from sleepers and external threats. They're the same oaths that I had to make. We make applicants make those oaths because at that level of the dream your lifespan becomes effectively infinite. Even if we took your people to realm:10 it would still be problematic. If your entire nation joined the Systems Alliance, then we might be able to get you back to your homeworld."
Tali searches Jane's face for a moment before standing up and storming to the door, "Don't do that. Don't dangle hope like that, I'm not some child to fall for that sort of drivel."
Jane smoothly catches Tali's hand and pulls her back, "Tali, I'm not kidding or trying to bribe you. You've got a magitech datapad. Read about the realms yourself. We might not be willing to fight the Geth for you, but we don't have to. Every Alliance world exists across the three linked realms, every single one. Could your own people swallow their pride and live in just two of those realms? Just, think about that before you decide I'm dangling a false hope. You can also message Victoria too, as that datapad is yours and yours alone."
Tali slumps, "I'm going to engineering. I, need to think."
Jane smiles, "Well, don't forget to take your work with you, as I'm sure that Adams is the source of a large amount of those requisitions."
Tali stomps over to her desk and grabs the offending tablet, before walking out the door.